A Maiden's Review

A Maiden's Ballad is a RPG Maker MV game made by Starmage for a theme event. The theme for this game is "passion." I'll try to keep in mind the restrictions you had when making this game.

The main character is a musician and her goal is to go to a nearby town so she can publish her music. The story is surface thin and really sets up an excuse for everything that follows.

The graphics are good at times and bad at others. The game uses the Time Fantasy graphics pack. The forest is very nicely mapped and looks beautiful in parts. Other areas, like the place you teleport to later, just end up being a large maze with long hallways that lead nowhere. (I don't know if that's criticizing you mapping or the level design.) The battle backs and menus also look very nice (someone has been digging through scripts.) I thought the character portraits, however, didn't match well with the rest of the graphics pack. It looks really strange.

The combat system is a side based ATB system. Characters you control face enemies on the opposite side of the screen. You wait for a gauge to fill up to fill up to select an action. The combat is challenging and will keep you on your toes, though I wish the status effects afflicted by enemies wasn't always 100% (how many time can I be silenced in 1 battle?)

It would be nice if I go do things like this without worrying about enemies.

To get into a battle an enemy on the screen needs to touch you. I usually like this method in games, as it allows you to get in encounters when you want. This is not what happens in this game. First thing, all enemies approach the player. It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing. Second thing, the level design makes it near impossible to avoid getting into encounters. I think there was one point where I was going down a hallway, one that ended up being a dead end, 3 enemies were approaching me from the other end and there was no way to out maneuver any of them. Many of the maps seem to be intentionally designed to force you into combat (for example, the zigzag map in the forest.)

I'm not sure I felt the "passion" I was supposed to feel in this game. I felt I was walking around looking for a crowbar, so I could open a chest, that opened a door (all the while being followed by crowds of enemies.) Where was the music? I'm told the main character likes music, but when does she share it with her friends? Where's the love for it? I couldn't find it in those hallways crowded with monsters. All I found was frustration and tedium. I give this game a 2 / 5.

Posts

Hi kory_toombs! :) Thank you so much for your review feedback and for playing as well as LPing the game as Secret Santa! ^_^ :D

You've made some very helpful notes to help improve this game for the better. ^_^ I'll always keep them in mind for the future. :)

I understand your concerns regarding the level designs on the dungeons and as well as the encounter-rates and how negative status effects seem constant. I should've given them at least 50% chance to hit status effects, not 100. And that's an important lesson learned when it comes to battle design. :) So thank you so much, kory_toombs. :D

Now, I know that you still haven't felt the "passion" or "music" in the game since you're still in the second dungeon, but music is actually a huge theme in this game and you'll start feeling it later on. (After beating the second dungeon, in fact.):D

You'll listen to characters play instruments and stuff like that in the game as you progress. ^_^ Though I wish I could've included things like that early on in the game to avoid disinterest for the lack of music promised. >.<

Still, I wish to thank you once again, kory_toombs for giving a review and an LP for the game! I really appreciate it much! :D

Another thing I would have considered putting in the game is some musical puzzles Have you ever played Eternal Sonata? It's an old RPG that focuses a lot on music as a theme. There's some interesting musical puzzles in the dungeons.